Crowds Expected for Estate Silver, Decorative Arts and Day of Jewelry at Rago's Dec. 6-8 AuctionCrowds Expected for One-of-a-Kind Estate Silver, Bronzes, Decorative Arts, Militaria and a Brilliant Day of Jewelry, Watches and Gems at Rago's December 6-8 Auction.
Lambertville, NJ: On December

understanding of the Japanese aesthetic. Viewed in the context of prevailing Victorian ornamental and traditional silver of its day, it is revolutionary, and anticipates both Gorham's Martele and Tiffany & Co.'s later work under the direction of Lewis Comfort Tiffany. $80,000-120,000.

Lot 500 is an immense 32 inch Gorham "Puritan" silver coffee pot built to scale, which was displayed in the office of Gorham's Chairman of the Board, deacesioned from the sample archives of Lenox-Gorham, ca. 1925. The piece sold at Christie's in New York, "Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver, Prints, Decoys", January 2007. $18,000-20,000.

Lot 1114 is an important and rare folk art figural walking stick, estimated at $18,000-24,000. It is a masterwork of American folk carving, with original surface and traces of original paint on multiple animals carved in high relief, presumed to be late 19th/early 20th c. Pennsylvania.

Lot 1510 is a Peter Moll Pennsylvania Long Rifle, estimated at $2,000-3,000. From 1764 through 1889, the Moll family made guns in the Lehigh Valley. Among the guns they manufactured was the Pennsylvania Rifle, or Kentucky Rifle. (The name Kentucky Rifle was adopted by the layman because of the popularization it had received in the hands of Daniel Boone, a native Pennsylvanian.) This rifle was made by Peter Moll, 4th generation, based in Hellertown Pa. It has a great, full length curly maple stock and a nice patch box.

Lot 1097 is a bronze sculpture, "Teucer", by Sir William Hamo Thornycroft, R.A. (English, 1850-1925), estimated at $15,000-20,000. William Hamo Thornycroft was the leading figure in the movement known as the New Sculpture in the early 1880s and a central member of the sculptural establishment and the Royal Academy into the 20th century. Thornycroft was elected to the Royal Academy in 1882, one of the youngest artists accorded this honor. That same year the bronze cast of Teucer was purchased for the British nation under the auspices of the Chantrey Bequest.

Lot 1238, a Myochin School Iron Articulated Snake, is estimated at $8,000-12,000. The celebrated Myochin family produced many of Japan's finest metalworkers and its highest quality armors from the 11th century forward. The word "Myochin", which describes rare and exceptional craftsmanship, was granted as a family name by the Emperor Konoe